Zeal CU science machine captures media’s imagination

July 28, 2015

LIVONIA, Mich. (7/28/15)--The builders of the Incredible Science Machine set out to break at least two world records. Whether those records were broke remains in question, but Zeal CU has reaped a generous share of publicity through its sponsorship of the chain reaction machine, the Michigan Credit Union League reported.

The machine was built across a 5,000-square-foot area with a half-million objects including 200,000 dominoes. Builders were out to set two Guinness World Records--the most dominoes toppled and the most steps in a Rube Goldberg machine (Michigan Monitor July 27).

The Associated Press reported that lead builder Steve Price, a student at Michigan State University, said the machine ran from start to finish, but some individual sections failed. He believed that without those sections, the machine wouldn’t have enough completed steps to break the record.

The Guinness Book of World Records is conducting its review of the machine. A spokesman for the Michigan Science Center, which hosted the event, said the record will be close call either way.

World record or not, Zeal scored dozens of media mentions as the title sponsor of the machine.

“When we originally heard about this attempt to break the record, we believed it fell directly in line with one of our guiding principles at the credit union, ‘Following your passion,’” said Lisa Fawcett, Zeal vice president of marketing, told the Michigan Credit Union League. “We knew we needed to support these builders in any way we could. As the credit union for hard-working Americans, Zeal understands the hard work and passion required to pursue a dream of this magnitude and we are just happy we could be part of it.”

Among the outlets that ran news items on the machine and its builder:

ClickonDetroit.com;

Crain’s Detroit;

The Detroit News;

CBC;

Yahoo!;

WXYZ TV-7;

Fox News;

Miami Herald; and

Windsor Star.

Many websites ran pictures of the young builders on the team wearing Zeal CU shirts.

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